Well, I think that both of my boys are now feeling better. Brad went to his primary doctor on Monday and they started him on antibiotics and some cough medicine. He’s feeling a lot better, but still has some coughing episodes during the night. I don’t quite know what was wrong with Jaxson, but he wasn’t eating and ran a 102.8 temp. He also seems to be feeling better as he is back to his silly little self. Since Jaxson has been under the weather, I had to reschedule my first session with my wellness coach until this morning. She showed me how to operate all of the equipment and helped me come up with a workout plan. I think it will be a lot of fun for Jaxson and I to hang out at the Y and “play.”

A group of some stay-at-home moms met up at Jumpin’ Jacks last week to let the kids run wild and free. . . and boy did they. We’ve been there a couple of times before but Jaxson wasn’t too interested in the inflatables, but this time he really had fun. I think it was because Jack was there and had no fear, so he showed Jaxson how it’s done. On Saturday, we went over to Rob and Jeriann’s house to see their new baby boy, Luke. He’s adorable as all get out and a very good baby. He’s already sleeping through the night most nights. What a lucky first time mom she is. We are looking forward to seeing them and the rest of our church group again this Friday as it is our turn to host our small group. I worked Sat. and Sun. nights this weekend and had another fabulous weekend at work. Brad wasn’t having as much fun here at home as I was having at work because he’s been battling a head cold for over a week now. He thought it was gone on Sat, but came back with a vengeance on Sunday night. He’s just miserable with chills, sinus pain, and coughing up green stuff. He did go to a walk-in clinic last night and they told him that it was nothing. Excuse me? So he’s at his doctor’s office right now, so we’ll see what he comes home with. So no VB for Brad tonight, we’ll see if we can win without him. We got a membership to the YMCA and I have my first meeting tomorrow with a wellness coach. Please say a prayer for me tonight as I haven’t worked out in ten years, when I was forced to when I played HS VB. I’m looking forward to it, but also nervous about it.

Today we went up to Ames to take my mom out to eat for her birthday. We enjoyed a nice meal at the Flame & Skewer in the mall. Jaxson did manage to sing “Happy to you” to her. He still can’t figure out how to get the “birthday” in there. Jaxson also turned 2 1/2 today. . . big milestone I know, but I can’t believe that I will be preparing for another birthday party in a short time.

Our Valentine’s weekend started off just lovely with another big snowfall. Just when we were excited about seeing grass again, we get hammered with at least another five inches. . . thank you mother nature! Brad and I had a blast getting to and from work, which usually takes 10-15 minutes depending on the traffic, but took us both 45 minutes since we had to dodge some accidents on the way. Oh well, I guess there’s nothing we can do about it. I had a wierd schedule at work this weekend, working Friday and Sunday nights. I was worried how this might work out with my sleeping schedule. I actually enjoyed it; it kind of felt like I had the weekend off since I was off from Saturday morning until Sunday night. On Saturday for Valentine’s Day, we did our usual of ordering take out. We like to stay away from the restaurants since they are crazy. We got some yummy pasta from Felix & Oscars and enjoyed it at home with Bubbie. With working the different nights at work also allows us to go to church as a family, which was great. Jaxson LOVES going to church; it’s so cute. He even asks if “Pipi Mike” (Pastor Mike) is going to be there. I hope that it stays that way with him because as I remember as a child, I wasn’t ever excited about going to church, but this church is just a TAD bit different than the one that I grew up in. This past week we have also been on the search for a gym membership, so we have been checking out gyms close to us. We checked out Prairie Life, which was awesome, but considerably more expensive than other places. We also went to the Waukee YMCA, which was also great, but not near as big or had as many machines or the room that Prairie Life does; however, they are currently building a new Y that is going to be three times as big as the current one. Surprisingly, I liked the pool at the Y better. It is geared more for kids. They also gave us a one week free membership so we could check it out. We have taken Jaxson once and he loved it, so I’m betting that we will end up at the Y. I am excited that this will give Jaxson and me something different to do during the day and hopefully it will get me out of this rut of the winter blues. Jaxson’s speech has also grown by leaps and bounds just in the past week. Brad and I can’t believe how much he is saying. Just in the past couple of days he has grown very interested in the ABC’s, so we have really been concentrating on learning more letters. He really surprised me when he sang the ABC’s with us and chimed in on half of the letters. That tells me once again that he is probably listening to us and retaining more than what I think he is. I didn’t have any new pictures from this week, so I just snuck into his room and snapped one of him sleeping.

What a fabulous weekend we had. It was filled with good weather, family and friends. On Saturday morning, Jack came over and played for a while with Jaxson. They had a blast playing outside in the awesome weather we had. Of course they enjoyed puddle stomping in all of the melted snow. On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Adventureland Inn for a teeny-tiny little family vacation. We got a couple of hotel rooms there where we stayed along with my mom and Mike and Brad’s parents. The hotel has three heated indoor pools and two hot tubs. One of the pools was perfect for the little kids and then they also had a pool with a swim up bar. How great is that? Heath, Tanya, Devon, Kade, Andy, Mindy and Brady even came to the hotel to join us for a swim. Saturday evening we enjoyed a long wait but a great meal at the Big Steer, where Brandon and Casey also joined us. This morning we got up and swam a little more before it was time to come home. Jaxson had a blast. He loved going from one pool to the other and taking turns swimming with everyone. He should sleep very well tonight with all of the activity.

We are so glad that Mindy had a meeting at work today because that meant that Brady got to come hang out with us for a few hours. He was such a good baby. Jaxson loved having him here. He thought he was pretty cool stuff helping me change Brady’s diaper. He also showed off at naptime when he showed Brady how he gets his diaper changed, how we read a book, and he also had me help Brady fold his hands so that he could pray with us. I don’t know how many times I heard, “Baady watch.” Jaxson will make an excellent big brother some day.

Last night we had our neighbors, Matt, Ann, Miah, and Amisha over for some pizza. We haven’t been able to see them all winter and Jaxson and Miah really miss playing with each other. It was also fun to see Amisha, who is almost six months old, and how big she is getting. Today, we met up with Mindy and Brady at the Merle Hay Mall play area. Mindy is still on maternity leave and since we are both going stir crazy at home we decided to get out today. We had fun watching Jaxson play in the play area and then enjoyed lunch at Old Chicago. Both of the boys behaved very well and it was nice to get out.